Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-01
OUR RAILROADS.
Los Angeles, The Indian
apolis of the Southwest.
GREAT AND GROWING TRAFFIC
improvements Of the Past Year and
Plans for the New Year.
A Bright Prospect.

Plans for the New Year.
A Bright Prospect.
The railroads of Los Angeles, lik
those of ali modern cities, are the artc
ries through which all the life blood o
the commerce, trade aud prosperity flow
The grass grew in the main thorough
fares of the old Pueblo until in the earl,
seventies the Southern Pacific Compan,
came in with their line and made thi
the metropolis of the new southwest
In the last couple of years of the sixtiel
decade a line OF road about twenty mile,
long was built from Wilmington harbo
to the city. All the trade Of this com
munity at that time was done with Sar
Francisco, and this little line of roat
served to connect the city with vessel.
which did the carrying trade. Later
Senator John P. Jones set in and bull
some sixteen miles Of road from Santa
Monica to Los Angeles, the terminus al
the ocean being the old wharf which wal
torn down when Jones sold out to the
Southern Pacific Company. The inten
ton Of the enterprising Senator was to
continue this road northeasterly, through
the San Gabriel valley, across the desert,
and into the mining country of Inyo,
Mono and Alpine counties, and across
the State border through southwestern
Nevada to Carson or Virginia City. Thi.
would have made connection between
Los Angeles and the world by means oi
the Central Pacific Comrany. But,
Jones had to succomb to the DEGREES oi
fate in this matter, and his great and
public spirited enterprise was never
THE s. CO.
Got in here about the time OF the great
Senator's difficulties and started their
roads out Of the city, one running north
to cross the great mountain barrier, and
connect with the line from San Fran.
cisco through the San Joaquin Valley;
the other went eastward ard never
was let rest until the Atlantic waters
we're reached at New Orleans at the close
Of the seventies decade. Jones sold to
these enterprising people. and thus the
Santa Monica scheme was never pushed
further that this city. The wharf was
torn up, and the little line operated suf-
for what traffic developed be.
tween that point and this city. Los An.
yles had hersoutlet to the world by
means Of the line to San Francisco, and
he other to New Orleans.
This was accomplished in all its com.
pleteness only half decade ago. The
'uturs of this city is clearly outlined in
The magnitude and the changes thus
brought about by this railroad connec.
lion with the world. TheS. P. Co. now
,ave their depot in Los Angeles. It
,overs an area of thirty-five acres, tax
ng in the car yard, shops and other
of the busine, q that centers
around it.
The division Immediately connected
with Los Angeles reaches to Sumner,
beyond the Tehachepi mountains, and at
The very head of the San Joaquin Valley,
on the north, and eastward to Yuma,
whore the Colorado river formsth boun-
dary between California and Arizona. The
total distance is about 500 miles. This
is under the supervision of Gen. E. +
Hewitt, Division Superintendent, and
Col. J. A. Muir, his assistant. In the
of the Road.Master, w. T..
and his Chief Clerk Norman
Entler; the department. of the bridge
builders and carpenters, under Thos.
the car shops; the freight
under Walter Devereaux;
the machine shops under Master Me-
chanic CoL Craig, there are employed
the greater part Of 1000 men. The bridge
and carpenterdepartmentemb embraces about
100 men; the koadmastor has in this
one county $50 men regularly employed;
at times the Company has thousands OF
men employed in this part of the
State, as was the case when the Soledad
Canon road was reconstructed last year,
and as is the case now in Ventura; the
machine shop employs 25O men in one
or another; then there is the
car shops, the freight department and
others, each with very large gang Of
men. When the pay car makes its
regular monthly visit here, the treasury
is drained 10 the tune of more than $50,
600. In extraordinary times it disburses
$l00. 900 per month.
CARS AND ENGINES.
The car yard, in charge of Mr.. Rawles,
as it does thirty five acres OF
land, is too small for the accommoda
tion of the company's bpsiAess. The
carshops and machine shops are, ol
course taken off this area, and very
pleasant place they are indeed. A nice
circle of grass with large trees stands or
the south side. Here are pleasant seats
in the. shade where the men may sit al
noon. In the center is the fagpole of the
company On the north side of the ma
chine shop, between that and the car
shop, is another pretty parterre oi
flowers which the taste of Mr.. Craig is
greatly embellishing.
In the yard stand at any time not less
than 500 cars OF all sorts. In the great
crush during the freight war year ago
this count was, perhaps. doubled. There
are often as many.as 80 Pullman palace
cars here at . time.
To relieve the car yard there is pro
vided long series of switches back oi
Naud's warehouse, where q great many
cars are run off to be reloaded. This
not proving sufficient, other sidings have
been made at the powder house, o
couple Of miles east Of the city and al
other places. A week ago the writer
saw perhaps 200 fruit cars on the Pow.
der.house sidings, which had been gath
cred here to handle the orange crop.
There are in the roundhouse, at the
yard in this city, or attached to it, 81
locomotive engines, of all sorts and
sizes. There are Is of these that range
at nearly 100 tons each. Many of tie
company's engines are SO to Cotton ma.
chimes. There are at times half hun.
dred ''iron horses" in the ''stables" al
one time. A big force of men is kept
busy cleaning andotherwise attending to
these. 1t is strange to hear the engin.
eers aud stokers speak Of these machines